BEIJING — Its many critics, particularly in the West, presumably do not want to hear or are not willing to listen to anything that might suggest these Beijing 2022 Games might carry salvation of any sort. Indeed, the numbers show a mighty few people from literally around the world tuned in to the 139th International Olympic Committee’s session, its general assembly.
They missed history in the making.
The president of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping. In a brief video message, outlined the importance of the Olympic movement to the People’s Republic, and vice-versa. Beijing is the first city in Olympic history to stage the Games in both Summer and Winter. Because of Beijing 2022, some 300 million Chinese have taken up winter sports — nearly the population of the entire United States, a number that figures to change the economies of winter sports in our 21st century. The Chinese, Xi said, pursue the “Olympic ideal with concrete actions.” This begs the question: around the world, who else?
After Xi came Thomas Bach, the IOC president. Bach is into his ninth year as president; Beijing will be his fifth Games leading the organization. He is a gold medalist from Montreal in 1976 and was himself denied the opportunity to compete in Moscow because of the U.S.-led boycott in 1980. On Thursday, he spelled out, eloquently, the mission of the Games, what they can and cannot do — to “get all humanity together in all our diversity,” but only if they “stand beyond all differences and political disputes.”
Thomas Bach at Thursday’s 139 IOC session // Greg Martin // IOC
The IOC session was broadcast live on its YouTube channel. That channel indicated that precisely 180 people were watching. To make sure that 180 wasn’t a glitch, the circumstances called for the browser to be refreshed. Instead of 180, there were 155. Ooops — 157. Now 156.
Here’s a take: if you want to criticize the IOC, it’s only reasonable that any criticism comes with the responsibility of knowing, or at least learning, what it is the criticism is about. When only 180 or 156 people in a world of 8 billion people are tuned in, it strongly suggests that most people — and this is little to no surprise — have zero idea what they are talking about it comes to the Olympic movement.
This is like bitching about taxes, which everybody does, when you don’t have the first idea how compound interest works.
When it comes to the IOC and China, there can be a lot to learn, most of which is not susceptible to blunt depictions or black-and-white characterizations.
Sitting at a desk adorned with the mascots of the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, the flags of China and the Olympic movement behind him, Xi Jinping declared Thursday, “The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready. We will do our best to deliver a streamlined, safe and splendid Games.”
Those 300 million people who have become active in ice and snow sports, roughly 20% of the population? That’s in the seven years since Beijing won the 2022 Games.
Bach said there are now 2,000 ice rinks and ski resorts in this nation. The income from winter sports in China? More than $61 billion in the last season. By 2025, just three years from now, China’s winter sports industry is expected to reach $155 billion.
These sorts of numbers are formidable. Bach, asking the rhetorical question, then answered it:
“What does this extraordinary progress mean for winter sport beyond China?
“It will change the global landscape of winter sport forever.”
One telling index:
The Olympic snowboard region is called Zhangjiakou. In 2015, when Beijing won the right to these Games, more than 16% of the people in a district called Chongli, where Zhangjiakou is located, were living in poverty. Two years ago, Chongli was officially declared to have eliminated poverty, Bach said, and now more than 20% of the people there work in jobs related to winter sports.
China, Xi said, has “taken active part in the Olympic movement” and “consistently championed the Olympic spirit.” It is, he said, “committed to pursuing the Olympic ideal with concrete actions,” in particular by promoting winter sport and by preparing for and organizing these 2022 Games.
Finally, Xi noted that the lunar calendar just turned to the Year of the Tiger. The tiger, he said, symbolizes “strength, courage and fearlessness.” Such “dynamism,” he said, will be on display this Olympic year, extending best wishes to the IOC.
Xi Jinping as the IOC members in the room saw him // Greg Martin // IOC
Pause to ask these salient questions:
If the same remarks were asked of the United States, what would the answers be? Has the United States taken a similarly active part in the movement? Consistently “championed the Olympic spirit”? Is it “committed to pursuing the Olympic ideal with concrete actions”? Name three ways. Go ahead. Waiting.
Americans have a very difficult time understanding why and how we play such a limited role in the Olympic movement. The U.S. team tends to win medals, especially at the Summer Games. American corporations provide considerable financial support but, now, so do entities from other nations, including China.
Compare. Xi Jinping oversaw preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics and took time to prepare a video address to the IOC for these 2022 Games. In Russia, Vladimir Putin took a keen hand in oversight of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games and is due to be here in Beijing for Friday’s opening ceremony. The United States? President Biden announced a “diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Games.
Who is going to be left out here, literally and figuratively, in the cold?
Again.
Criticize Sochi for overspending or doping. Criticize Beijing for what you will. Assuming Putin appears as scheduled in the dignitaries’ box Friday at the Birds’ Nest, the imagery that will flash around the world — to ministers, to sports officials, to everyday people — is that the heads of state of China and Russia are personally and quite visibly committed to the aspirational ideals of the Olympics.
The Americans?
It is indisputably the case that the United States does not have a federal sports ministry. Even so, the question hangs in the air: the Americans?
In his address, Bach addressed the IOC’s mission — and the limits of what the Olympics can and cannot do. HIs remarks should be required reading, both for those who love the Olympics and those who find them, and particularly the IOC, wanting.
“Over the next two weeks,” he said, “the best winter sports athletes of the world will be fierce rivals on the fields of play. They will engage in intense competition for the highest prize while at the same time living peacefully and respectfully together. In this way, the athletes will show how the world would look like if we all respect the same rules and each other.
“This,” he said, “is the mission of the Olympic Games: bringing the world together in peaceful competition. Uniting humankind in all our diversity. Always building bridges. Never erecting walls.
“In the Olympic Games, we are all equal, irrespective of social background, gender, race, sexual orientation or political belief.
“We can only accomplish this mission if the Olympic Games stand above and beyond all political differences. This is only possible if the Olympic Games are politically neutral and do not become a tool to achieve political goals.
“Our responsibility,” he said, “is to ensure that all athletes can come together for this peaceful competition. Also achieving this was not a foregone conclusion.”
Why?
“You may remember,” he told the members, many in the room, some attending via video, ”that at our IOC sessions in January and July 2020, we could already see the dark clouds of the growing politicization of sport on the horizon. We also saw that in some people’s minds, the boycott ghosts of the past were rearing their ugly heads again.
“This is why we have been working even harder to get the unifying mission of the Olympic Games across to as many leaders and decision-makers as possible: the United Nations, the G20 leaders, intergovernmental organizations and national governments, individual politicians and many, many more.
“In all these conversations, we stressed that the Olympic Games can only accomplish this unifying mission, that we can only get all humanity together in all our diversity, if the Games stand beyond all differences and political disputes. We appealed to them to respect this and thereby to support this precious mission of the Olympic Games.”
Another pause here — to emphasize what Bach was trying to get across.
This “unifying mission” is the Games’ raison d’etre — to bring “humanity together in all our diversity.”
This means that the Games — again, the 17 days of Games, not the IOC, not the notion of the intersection of sports and politics — stands “beyond all differences and political differences and political disputes.” It also means that the key is to “ensure that all athletes [emphasis added] can come together for this peaceful competition.”
All means all.
For those loud and long critics, especially over the past few years, and in reference to the “ROC” at these 2022 Games, that especially means Russians.
One must always keep in mind that Bach lived through the 1980 boycott. For him, it is imperative that the stage is set for all qualified athletes to seek to achieve their dreams.
All means — all.
While the U.S. government is not here, of course the U.S. team is, and Bach noted, “All the athletes” — and, for emphasis, the man means all — “who have been overcoming great uncertainties for so long, can make their dream come true and compete at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.”
He said a moment later:
“We know that sport alone cannot create peace. We cannot take decisions on war and peace — this is the exclusive remit of politics. But when it comes to peace, also words and symbols are important. Because these symbols show us how the world can look like if we all respect the same rules and each other.
“The Olympic Games are the symbol of peace and unity, showing us the way to a better and more peaceful future.”